Why, No! No, It Doesn’t At All!

Dear Dayton Church of the Brethren,

Hello, I am your neighbor. I live not far from your church, which sits on the main road in to our small town. I drive by your building multiple times a day. I see your billboards (both of them; one in front of the church, and this one which sits behind the church along the main highway that borders our town). 

The Opposite of Faith Is…

This meme posted by the United Church of Christ, based on a quote by Elie Wiesel (US News & World Report, October 27, 1986) has shown up in a few news feed posts of late. The complete quote:

Revised YMCA Mission Statement

I love the YMCA. I love supporting them and their commitments to fitness, healthy living and social responsibility.They do great work. I used to enroll my kids in many of their programs. It is a Christian organization and yet it is inclusive with regard to sexual orientation and also actively cultivates diversity. I travel often and I almost always grab a temporary membership wherever I go so I don’t have to interrupt my workout routine. I am working out at the Y just outside of Portland, Oregon this week and they have little posters all around the place that put forth their vision and mission statements. 

Getting Me Back to the Faith

Ojo, a while back you asked why believers would try to get you to return to the faith. I think this quote from Charles Spurgeon encapsulates the feelings of many of us. It does come from a good place znd [sic] not from a place of judgement or condemnation or even a feeling of spiritual superiority. God bless you my good friend!

The Via Dolorosa and Way of the Rose

I embedded a riddle into the song Way of the Rose, on the Undercover album Balance of Power (1990). To those who care, this is old news (it went around on Usenet here and here). But I do still get questions about it and recently two people have asked and since have solved it on their own. There are other aspects of the lyric folks have asked about too.

Drive-By Blessings

I don’t know if this was some kind of collusion or something, but in the last week or so I have had a larger-than-usual number of posts to my Facebook wall that seem to have a common theme – a note with some aspect of positive intentions but qualified by a religious statement or affirmation of one kind or another:

Five Things I’m Grateful For

I never play well with these viral Facebook things, but when my daughter tags me and when it’s about gratitude, well, I simply must relent. It comes at a fertile time too,

Six Things I Learned While Hiking Waterfalls

Dark Hollow Falls

Having just returned to Virginia from Phoenix, and perhaps because I was missing the Pacific ocean this summer, I found myself pining for water. With nothing pressing on my schedule I decided to spend the weekend hiking some of the waterfall trails in the Shenandoah National Park.  

Warned For The Last Time

I have been warned for the last time, apparently…

(At Least) Seven Ways God Had Around Hell

I’ve often said that the idea of hell was the lynchpin that once removed, led to the final undoing of what had been a slowly and steadily eroding faith, one that truly had died a thousand deaths. Having been intelligently challenged on hell over a two-day discussion was only the last straw.